Des Sturgess – prosecutor or defender?

Before his appointment as the first Director of Public Prosecutions for Queensland in 1984, Des Sturgess had established a well-earned reputation as the best defence counsel at the Queensland Bar. Like John Mortimer’s literary creation, Horace Rumpole, Sturgess ‘never prosecuted’.

On one occasion during the 1980s, however, he did assume the role of prosecuting counsel–or, rather, ‘counsel assisting the Coroner’–in the notorious Azaria Chamberlain inquest in the Northern Territory. Sturgess did so at the request of Paul Everingham, the then Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and an old friend.

The thrust of the inquest centred on the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of 10-week-old Azaria Chamberlain, particularly the family’s assertion that a dingo had taken the child. Some inconsistencies were identified and the media attention that the case received amounted to a ‘feeding frenzy’.

As a result of the inquest, Lindy Chamberlain was subjected to further investigation and subsequently charged with her daughter’s death. Sturgess’ involvement was of paramount importance in seeking the truth behind the inconsistencies and discrepancies in the accounts of those involved.

Reports of Des Sturgess’ tilt at prosecution rang up and down George Street, with some of his colleagues at the bar finding it difficult to come to terms with him acting for the Crown. At the time, the late Shane Herbert, then a very junior counsel, explained it by saying: ‘Des didn’t prosecute; he simply got the dingo off.’